Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A letter has been received from Senator McGrath:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

"Hard-working households, families and small businesses are suffering under an Albanese Labor Government, and things will only get worse under an Albanese-Bandt minority government."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we're debating here today is a matter of public importance. I'll read it out to those who are listening at home on the wireless.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McGrath, I'll just get you to pause. Colleagues, if you're not participating in the discussion can you either leave or sit quietly so I can hear the good senator speak.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. I'm not surprised that Labor senators are chattering like chooks in the henhouse, because they might learn something. They might learn the damage that the Labor Party have done to Australia. What we're debating here today is that hard-working households, families and small businesses are suffering under an Albanese Labor government, and things will only get worse under an Albanese-Bandt minority government. So come on down, spinner!

You've got to realise that when you go into coalition, which Labor and the Greens could do after the election—obviously, I think Peter Dutton will be Prime Minister and David Littleproud will be Deputy Prime Minister—you've got to work out who is going to take the portfolios. We know that Adam Bandt is going to be Deputy Prime Minister. The question is—I'm sorry, Greens senators over there; I'm sure that some of you might have the ability to touch ministerial leather. Of course, we could have Senator McKim being minister for education, because he did such a bang-on job when he was minister for education in Tasmania and was busily closing schools. Of course, we've got some other noted senators, such as Senator Faruqi. She could be the minister for planning—

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Housing development?

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Or development! I think she would do a good job.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator McGrath. Senator Allman-Payne on a point of order?

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I realise I'm a bit slow to my feet, but I think the comments in relation to Senator McKim were impugning his character and I would ask that Senator McGrath withdraw.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't believe that they were, but the senator may wish to assist the chamber.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Actually, Acting Deputy President, I'm not going to. I wasn't impugning his character. I actually said he possibly could be education minister based on his track record in Tasmania, which is where he did propose the closure of lots of schools. I don't think that's impugning someone's character; I think that's setting the facts on the record.

But, to go back to Senator Faruqi and her well-known love of koalas and natural bushland, I think perhaps Senator Faruqi could be the minister for bush and koalas. Having said that, it's actually quite serious here, because the Albanese Labor government have absolutely destroyed Australians economically. Australians are living in a cost-of-living crisis caused by this Labor Party government. It's been caused by a weak Prime Minister who's unable to make decisions. Let's face it, he went to North Queensland last week. He left parliament early and went to North Queensland. As a Queensland senator, I am pleased that the Prime Minister of this country visited Townsville and the flood centres, where they've been absolutely destroyed by the floods, but this Labor Party Prime Minister left North Queensland early to attend a Labor Party fundraiser in Brisbane. This Labor Party Prime Minister spent more time attending Labor Party events in Brisbane, including a fundraiser, than he did meeting with victims of the floods in Ingham and Townsville. That shows you the mentality and the character of the Prime Minister of this country.

But, then, this is a prime minister who's clearly not trusted by the security services of this country. This is a prime minister who's not trusted by the Labor Premier of New South Wales. This country came very close to a mass casualty event. A caravan full of explosives was to be placed outside either a Jewish synagogue or a Jewish church, yet this Prime Minister cannot tell Australians if he was told or when he was told.

So what is the use of this Prime Minister? There is no use of this Prime Minister but to show to the Australian people the danger of a Labor government and the extreme danger of a Labor-Greens government. We know that the Labor Party will do a preference deal with the Greens party—the Greens party, who are a racist, antisemitic party. This is a Greens party who refuse to accept the situation that is happening in the Middle East, a Greens party who are apologists for what has happened over there and a Greens party who do not acknowledge the antisemitism that has grown in Australia because of some of the actions of Greens politicians. So you can just imagine what would happen to this country with a minority Labor-Greens government. You would have people who dislike modern Australia trying to govern modern Australia. Vote LNP!

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're a proven racist.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I beg your pardon, Senator Shoebridge. You can withdraw, please.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Withdraw—given the findings against him? He was sacked by the UK Prime Minister for being that. He was literally sacked for that reason.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Shoebridge, I'm not entering into a debate with you. I'm asking you to withdraw.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We just had five minutes from the opposition talking about anything but the cost of living. They propose an MPI to talk about hardworking households, families and small businesses, which I'll actually talk about, but those on the opposite side have no plan except to take $350 billion out of services in this country for hardworking Australians. They have no plan except to get rid of 36,000 people who provide services to hardworking Australians and who live and work all over this country and through our regions. That's what they've got organised.

When you start thinking about the things that they haven't done yet, you've got to think about what they are doing. Under a Dutton government, we would have all been $7,200 worse off in terms of the cost of living because of the things that they've opposed. Every Australian would have been $7,200 worse off on the basis of what the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Dutton, has been saying in the battles over what should be done about the cost of living. Their strategy in the battle over the cost of living is to do nothing, to take more out, to rip off services and to damage the community. That's their strategy—no strategy at all except cause harm and more harm and more harm.

We see the cuts that they continue to put forward. In the press release, Mr Dutton described cutting 36,000 public servants across this country who provide essential services right across our community, whether it be in the childcare area, in the NDIS, in veterans affairs or in Centrelink. We know how long veterans were waiting to get their cases even touched, and those opposite want to go back to that. People were waiting 12 months for the file to even be opened up. These are people who fought for and protected the country. That's what those opposite think about service and fellow Australians. That's what they think about people who deserve to have a government that acts for them—cut it further; cut it back.

Of course, when you look at all the cuts they've said they're going to make, you have to think about the ones that they won't tell us about, because they're going to have a meeting after the election to talk about where the other billions of dollars are going to be cut from. They come in here and propose an MPI, a matter of public importance, to talk about small business, households and the cost of living, but not for one second do they talk about any of that in the debate on their own matter of public importance.

Then you start looking at the sorts of things that they want to do to the Australian workforce and community. There's the right to disconnect so that people have a reasonable opportunity to say to somebody, 'Ringing me at two in the morning is not an appropriate time to be ringing me and waking me up, unless it's a matter of absolute urgency.' Unreasonable times and arrangements are unreasonable times and arrangements. But those opposite have said they're going to get rid of that right, because they want people to work harder and longer for less. That's the party that actually believes that everyone in the country is getting paid too much. Time and time again, strategies and policies have been put forward by this government to make sure that we can lift wages, but they want to bring things back to where they crush the middle class in this country. Wages in the middle class declined during the 10 years under the conservatives, and they want to do it worse. In terms of the right to disconnect, think about what the Police Association Victoria said about it. They spoke about the culture of being constantly contactable after hours, and they said:

It just causes undue stress for people. That's not necessary when the job is stressful enough.

Police Federation of Australia's Scott Weber said very similar things. He described the unpaid time thus: 'Otherwise it's simply wage theft.' When you see that proposals have been put in place to make sure that the right to disconnect takes place, you see that people have been able to turn around and manage it. Managers manage—the system still works—and people just aren't having their time thieved from them for nothing. But they want to go back to that, because they want people to work longer and harder for nothing. That's their strategy; that's their plan. They are against 'same job, same pay' as well. They want tens of thousands of dollars taken off hardworking Australians around this country.

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With all the signs pointing towards a minority government, this election provides voters with a unique opportunity to keep Mr Dutton out and to push Labor harder to take meaningful action on the things that matter. In a very wealthy country like ours, everyone should be able to afford the basics—food on the table, a roof over their head and a world-class health and education system.

But, while millions of people are struggling to get by, Australian billionaires are raking in $67,000 an hour. Let me say that again, $67,000 an hour. That is 1,300 times more than the average worker gets. It is time for voters to turn the tables. If we were to tax Australia's 150 billionaires, we would raise $50 billion over the decade. We could use that money to fund services like getting dental into Medicare for everyone, having everybody see the GP for free or fully funding our education system this year.

One in three big corporations pays no tax. I will say that again, one in three big corporations pays zero tax. The Greens will make those corporations pay their fair share of tax so you can see the GP for free or go and see the dentist without your credit card.

If you are worried about the cost of seeing a doctor, a dentist or a psychologist, you are not alone. Despite being a wealthy country and despite people having access to the health care that they need, we know that more and more people are putting off healthcare appointments because they can't afford it. And let's not even talk about those people on income support who haven't seen a meaningful increase in this term of government. Those people are choosing between getting their health attended to, putting food on the table and paying the rent.

We cannot keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. If you want to see the GP for free and if you want your local public school to be fully resourced and free, the first step is to fight for someone who will vote for you. When the Greens held the balance of power in 2010, we got dental into Medicare for kids, and if you put the balance of power with us in the next government, we will work to push Labor to get it done for everyone. More than three million children have had 43 million services provided to them since the Greens secured that change. Change is possible and, at this election, you can vote for it.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't know about anyone else, but I feel a bit queasy now. The fact that we could be staring down a minority government with those opposite and the unicorn farmers in charge really does make me fear for the future of this country. The reality is that we live in the greatest nation on earth; however, the last three years have seen poor decisions by this government mean that all Australians are worse off, that all Australians are a little bit less safe and that our nation has been divided.

Every Australian knows that they are worse off than when this government came to office. I think what has also become quite unsettling about this government is their constant need to gaslight Australians. They do it every day in this chamber, when they are one step from saying Australians have never had it so good. You only need to go out and talk to the mums who actually pay the childcare bills to know that child care isn't cheaper. You can say it as much as you like, but it's not true. Every time you tell a mum that you're so good because you've delivered cheaper child care, when the reality is it's up over 12 per cent and more than that for a lot of families, you are just gaslighting these Australian women by saying to them: 'No, you're wrong. We have delivered cheaper child care. You don't understand. We have. No, it can't be that more money is coming out of your wallet each week.' But they know it is.

You are gaslighting Australians with this renewable only push. We can imagine how that's going to go when you're in partnership with the unicorn farmers. The only time you'll get a bend in a transmission powerline under this lot is when Mehreen Faruqi is building another house—and the koala can get out of the way of that.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Faruqi, please, Senator Hughes.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My apologies. Senator Faruqi, the potential minister for housing and development, because, let's face it, she's built more houses than the Housing Australia Future Fund.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Four times as many.

Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Four times as many. She's been much more successful. She could maybe run the HAFF. But it is gaslighting Australians. It's treating them like mugs, and they can see it. They know they're worse off. They know their power bills are going up, because they pay them. So when you stand there and say that renewables are the cheapest form of energy and that energy is free from the sun and the wind, they know you're making it up. Renewable energy isn't the cheapest form of energy when you put the cost of the transmission lines in. We know the unicorn farmers can't quite figure it out because they never quite passed economics; they were too busy in gender studies and basketweaving. When you work out the volume of materials and concrete required for one wind turbine, let alone its limited lifespan—and the materials aren't recycled; they go to landfarm. The critical minerals are mined by slave labour. The Uighurs in China are making their solar panels. But they know that if your power bill is 50 per cent transmission and the transmission costs go up, your power bill's going up. This gaslighting of Australians is continuing to occur.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, does have a plan to get Australia back on track. Whilst we're going to see scare campaigns from those opposite, because we know that's all they've got in the campaign drawer, Australians aren't believing them. They didn't believe them in Victoria last weekend. They're not believing them in outer metropolitan areas. They're not actually believing them anywhere. They've never believed them in rural and regional Australia. Australians know you are gaslighting them. You are turning us into a poorer nation. You are dividing this nation. You are lining yourself up. We saw it this week as the Greens jumped into bed with you again to put the guillotine through. I think we're up to 200 bills we've now seen guillotined through this parliament, the parliament that was going to be full of transparency. What a joke! You'd be up for coercive control with the volume of gaslighting that's going on and the way that you're conducting yourselves.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While I agree with the sentiment of this motion—it is true that Australians are suffering under an Albanese government and things would get worse under an Albanese-Bandt government—the fact of the matter is that this motion doesn't have any solutions. It's typical of the Liberal Party to throw mud at the other side saying, 'Well, we're bad, but they're worse.' I'm sorry, but it's about time the Liberal Party actually came up with some solutions of their own. Yes, there's the $20,000 tax deduction for entertainment. If that's the best you've got, then heaven help us.

We know that for nine years under the coalition government—and I was there for a number of them—there was very little tax reform and very little genuine structural reform of the economy. In fact, I know. I've spoken to Angus Taylor, the current shadow Treasurer, many times about structural reform. I spoke to him one day about the need for an infrastructure bank and he said, 'Well, that sounds like MMT to me.' I'm sorry, shadow Treasurer, but the fact of the matter is that MMT is when you expand the volume of credit without actually securing it against infrastructure or an asset.

People first are proposing to build infrastructure by issuing new shares. We don't intend to use foreign debt. We're going to use domestic equity. There's been a lot of talk today by the coalition about the dangers of a Labor-Greens government, and I totally agree with that, but you cannot trust a Liberal government to actually implement economic reform in this country. I know that because I was secretary of the backbench finance committee for five years. Despite repeated attempts at introducing new reform, we got diddly squat. So I know that the best coalition you should have is a coalition-People First government, because People First—yours truly here—is the only one that understands the tax act, the only one that understands global finance markets and the only one that has solutions to fix the economy.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can't believe I'm actually going to agree with some of the comments that Senator Rennick has just made in this debate. He is right: the coalition have not done their work when it comes to policy. What we do know, though, is that, when we won the last election, we inherited interest rates going up, the cost of living going up, and high inflation. It had a six in front of it. What we have done in the almost three years that we've been here is work every single day to bring that inflation down while at the same time lowering unemployment to figures that we haven't seen in this country, with low inflation and low unemployment, which is benefiting the Australian community.

Yes, we know the cost of living has had a huge impact, but we know that's been felt around the globe. But those people on the other side want to try and rewrite history. They live in Fantasia, where they are the only ones that are ever right. They come in here and try to grandstand with these MPIs, but, when it comes to reality, the Australian people know who Mr Dutton is. They remember him in his portfolios in the past. Yes, I do recall that there was an organisation in Health when he was the health minister: the prestigious AMA, who voted him the worst health minister in Australia's history. Why did they do that? It was because he cut. He gutted it. He used health and aged care as an ATM. That's what he did when he was minister. They will not want to go back to him.

The beauty of it is that they're so consistent on that side. They've had almost three years in opposition. They have no policies except for nuclear energy that's going to cost every mum and dad and business in this country, if it ever happens, more when it comes to energy and power prices. And the other major policy they have is bringing back long lunches for bosses on the taxpayer. That's their priority. Every single measure that we brought into this chamber and the other place to give relief to the Australian community and to families—reducing the cost of medicine, bringing in 60-day scripts, having the opportunity for people to see a GP when they need urgent care. We developed the urgent care clinics, which are so successful. I can't speak highly enough of the contribution that the urgent care clinic has delivered to my community in Launceston and northern Tasmania, taking the pressure off the hospital and accident and emergency. That's delivering for the community.

We know that, when they were in government, their great claim to fame was that their policy was to keep wages low. It was for Australian workers to have their wages low. Now they've come up with, 'We are going to have cuts, but we're not going to tell you until after the election.' Well, no-one is going to trust Mr Dutton, because we know his track record. My community members are asking me, 'How much is this going to cost me if there is a change in government?' I remind them that, if they vote for Bridget Archer, who is a really nice person, she will deliver Peter Dutton into the Lodge, and that's not going to be good for the Australian community. So be careful what you wish for, when you're voting for your local Liberal member. Who would then be the Prime Minister?

They voted against every single measure that we have brought in, including lower power prices, delivering energy relief, tax cuts twice as large as what they promised when they are in government—which they said they would scrap when they got into government—introducing fee-free TAFE and rebuilding the skills of Australian workers. They come in here and cry crocodile tears about the cost of living and the impact that it's having. If they were genuinely concerned, they wouldn't have joined forces with the Greens. (Time expired)

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Despite all the bluff and bluster of those opposite, the facts are that, 2½ years ago, Anthony Albanese, now our Prime Minister, promised all Australians that life would be cheaper under Labor. They would have cheaper mortgages. They would have cheaper electricity, and everybody would be better off.

Those opposite can say black is white and sit there and talk about everything else but the cost of living, but, far from being Australia's saviour, I think the best analogy is that he is the emperor with new clothes. In fact, nobody on that side of the chamber, including the Greens, has got the courage to tell him that he has no clothes on. The tragedy for all Australians, including Western Australians, is the reality that hardworking families, hardworking households and small businesses are doing it incredibly tough.

No matter how much those opposite refuse to tell the Prime Minister the truth, Australians are not stupid. They know exactly what has happened, after 2½ years, to their household budgets. Everything that they spend, every bill they have, has gone up around about 10 per cent or, in some cases, more. It never had to be this way. It hasn't just happened; it has happened because of the deliberate policies that those opposite have implemented.

What are some of the facts? In just 2½ years, 27,000 small businesses, which are the backbone of this economy, have been forced to shut up shop. In Western Australia, small businesses make up 97 per cent of all businesses, but over a thousand went to the wall because they could no longer afford the cost of doing business. For average Western Australians, in fact for all Western Australians, whether it's a trip to the supermarket, opening up their power bills, seeing the mortgage rise and rise or the cost of their insurance, everything has been going up.

We've also learnt, today, that Western Australia has endured the biggest fall in bulk-billing by GPs across the country under those opposite. For all of the rhetoric that it's all roses for those who need to access their GP, we have the biggest fall in bulk-billing. In fact, in WA, only 6.2 per cent of clinics are bulk-billing patients, meaning that is one clinic per 46,500 Western Australians that bulk bill. Western Australians are paying the most for a visit to a GP. The out-of-pocket expenses for one visit to a GP in Western Australia is now $42.66, and that is just for a standard GP appointment, which is putting even further pressure on Western Australian household budgets.

No matter what those opposite say, no matter how much they deny it, no matter how much they do not want to tell the Prime Minister that his new clothes are transparent, he thinks he's the great emperor, coming into this country to save Australians. But he's a bit like George Costanza. George Costanza learnt that he had to do everything that he said he wasn't going to do. All his instincts were wrong, so he had to go against his instincts. This Prime Minister's instincts for managing the economy, health, education, disability, mortgages and housing—we heard today that those opposite have not built a single house under their housing policy. Not a single house has been delivered, and that is to the detriment of all Western Australians. Shame on you! Western Australians and other Australians have woken up to you.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Reynolds. The time for the debate has expired.